Color from lith prints

[Dan Henderson]

I have been using Foma MG classic in Fotospeed LD20 to make lith prints, getting a nice salmony color. I recently purchased some Rollie (Maco?) developer, and with the same paper, can coax nothing more than a clay color. Has anyone had good luck getting brighter colors from this combination?
Thanks,
Dan

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Hi Dan,

I think the Rollei is the same as Maco Superlith, and I made prints that looked almost identical to what I got from Fotospeed, but if memory serves me right, it took slightly weaker solution, more exposure, and higher temperature (80*F) to get there.
Now I use AristaLith (which is dirt cheap, $12 for a powder kit for a gallon each of A and B) and that takes even more coaxing to get the colors, but it's a lot of fun to play with.

- Thomas

 

[ic-racer]

The nice color occurs because of pronounced under-development, so, as Thomas pointed out, try a more dilute solution. How many minutes before your image came up?

 

[Rich Ullsmith]

Dilute down, temperature up. If you aren't using healthy amounts of old brown, it is good to have a bottle of 10% KBr for seasoning.

With weak, amber developer you can get pinks, greens and browns on the same print with this paper. And don't be discouraged with the clay colored prints, if you have enough density you can bleach and redevelop.